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AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BY 

Col. Arthur Herbert 



ON THE 

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OP THE 



Occupation of Alexandria 



BY THE 



FEDERAL TROOPS, 
MAY 24, 1861. 



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THE 

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OF 

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In response to a request of my old comrades I am here 
to recall some memories of a past, fast fading into 
oblivion, namely, the 24th day of Ma)' 1861, when upon 
the arrival of the U. S. troops, the Alexandria Battalion 
afterwards merged into the 17th Virginia Infantry 
evacuated the town. 

Just fifty years ago without hardly a moment's warn- 
ing, they marched away not knowing what the future 
had in store for them, or for those most dear they were 
leaving behind. 

The partings at their homes and upon the streets, first 
severance of all life's closest ties on that fateful day in 
May, may be imagined but not described, between hus- 
bands and wives, mothers and sons, maidens and lovers, 
the pleading words and kisses of children who felt the 
unusual strain, but could not understand its far-reaching 
significance. 

No Spartan women of old gave up their nearest and 
dearest, with more loyalty or heroism ; bright were the 
smiles that hid the aching hearts, cheery were the words 
of farewell. They kept back their tears for the silence 
of their own chambers and the eyes of an all-pitying 
God. 



So on this decoration day, as has been our custom, we 
meet to keep green the memory of the men who gave 
their lives for their State and the cause that meant so 
much to them and to us. 

We strew their graves with flowers, we hang fresh 
garlands upon yonder monument raised to perpetuate 
this great epoch in our history, and upon its base we 
chisel the names of the men we wish to honor ; men of 
self-abnegation and deeds of daring. On such occasions 
also the cause for which they surrendered life and all 
that was dear has been discussed and defended. 

I propose not to enter upon that, to-day, but will rest 
their cause and its issue, with the Judge of all the Earth 
who knoweth the hearts of all men and who alone 
judgeth rigtheously. 

Sunday, the day before the evacuation of Alexandria, I 
spent the evening in Fairfax County with relatives ; my 
own home being only a half mile away. We were a 
party of young cousins all of whom were talking earn- 
estly of the impending storm that was so soon to devas- 
tate our homes and which meant death to some of our 
group, and great sorrow and separation to us all. While 
there we were startled by the swift passage of trains and 
the shrieks of locomotives which told us that something 
unusual was taking place and warned those of us who 
belonged to military organizations, to join our several 
commands ; taking a hasty leave, with sad partings for 
all, I returned to my home and prepared to join my com- 
pany, then in barracks at Peyton's Grove at the head of 
King Street. 

As I took my last look at my home, I thought I had 
never seen the place look so beautiful. The evening sun 
sent shafts of light through the branches of old oaks and 
pines, the fruit trees were all aglow with bud and blos- 
soms, the grass on lawn and field glimmered in the 



glowing sunlight. Wild flowers bloomed, roses filled the 
air with their fragrance and the spring song of many 
birds lent a charm to the whole. 

After the surrender, I visited the same spot then 
stamped out of recognition by the iron heel of war and 
desolation had marked it for its own. 

This is no fancy sketch, for many homes in Virginia 
then were but desolation, their inmates scattered and 
wanderers upon the earth. 

Just fifty years ago as the light of day broke over the 
Maryland Hills and the rippling waters of the Potomac, 
the dip of oars was heard and a boat of armed men shot 
out from the Pawnee, simultaneously a rifle shot rang out 
on the peaceful air, this shot coming from the rifle of a 
sentry named Morrill, warned the old town now resting 
in fancied security, that the enemy was upon them. Let 
me break this narrative for a moment to pay a tribute to 
this same gallant soldier, Sergeant Morrill, color bearer 
of the regiment, at the battle of Seven Pines, who fell 
mortally wounded. The colors were caught up by 
Captain Fairfax and passed to color Corporal Diggs, who 
in turn fell wounded. From his nerveless hands, they 
were borne aloft by private Harper, of Company E, until 
the battle closed. 

The U. S. steamer Pawnee lying off the town rounded 
too, opened her ports and prepared to cover the landing 
of troops from the transports. All of which was done in 
safety without clash of arms. Ellsworth formed his reg- 
iment of Zouaves and marching company front, up 
King Street with band playing and colors thrown to the 
breeze, halted his column in front of the Marshall 
House. 

Then with a guard he mounted the steps and proceeded 
to haul down the Confederate flag that waived from the 
roof. Jackson surprised at the onset, rushed to the res- 



cue, killing Ellsworth and in turn being killed by the 
guard. This was the opening tragedy of fifty years ago 
to be followed by endless others upon the soil of Virginia. 
An evacuation of the town had been agreed upon, but 
the entrance of the U. S. troops was premature, having 
notice from our pickets in time, the companies of our 
battalion, who were in barracks at different points 
rendezvoused at the corner of Prince and Washington 
streets, where the Confederate Monument now stands, 
from which they marched out of town and were sent by 
rail to Manassas. 

The 17th Virginia Infantry became a part of Long- 
street's Brigade. After Longstreet's promotion to a divis- 
ion, he was replaced by General Ewell, upon General 
Ewell's promotion, General A. P. Hill commanded the 
brigade, but after the battle of Willimsburg he was 
made a division commander, thus you see three com- 
manders of our brigade became Lieut. Generals, com- 
manding three army corps in the army of Northern 
Virginia. 

The 17th Virginia infantry were in most of the great 
battles of the war, commencing with Blackburn's Ford, 
First Manassas, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Frazier's 
Farm, Second Manassas, South Mountain, Antietam, 
First Fredericksburg, Sixteenth May Drury's Bluff, Sec- 
ond Cold Harbor, Dinwiddie Court House, where we lost 
forty men killed and wounded out of two hundred and 
fifty, then Five Forks, and Sailor's Creek, which practi- 
cally ended our career as a regiment. 

Besides skirmishes innumerable and two independent 
fights when issolated from the army, one was the holding 
of Manassas Gap for twelve hours against Merritt's 
Brigade of Cavalry and the other was saving the bridges 
over the Richmond and Danville Railway. The then 



only connection between Richmond and the South, which 
was threatened by Kautz's Cavalry. 

From the 29th of March to April 5th, 1865, we had 
been marching and fitting with only two whole nights 
rest in the ten days. 

After Sailor's Creek the retreat continued night and 
day. The enemy with their force of 12,000 cavalry im- 
peded our advance, hung on our flanks, attacked our 
rear, burnt our trains, captured our stragglers, but we still 
moved on without rations, with hunger doing its work, 
to this add the mental strain upon brain and nerves and 
you can realize how many like myself seemed to be 
walking in a kind of waking night mare, with every fac- 
ulty stunned ; the retreat keeps on. 

All anxiety as to safety, all fear, all hope gone except 
that the present might prove a horrid dream from which 
we would soon awake. Men sunk from sheer exhaust- 
tion, many deserted to their homes, but there was still a 
heroic band that fought, sometimes without organization, 
and the enemy's charges were checked by rattling 
musketry from straggling infantry or driven back by 
grape and cannister at short range by our artillery where 
isolated and unsupported. 

Cavalry to the rear, ah no! To the front they rode 
from the lines to Appomattox, inspired by the spirit of a 
Stuart and led by Hampton the Lees and other kindred 
spirits, where duty called upon flanks or front, or rear, 
there their pennons waived and their bright arms flashed 
amid the struggling hosts. 

Overwhelmed by numbers, the gallant few gave way, 
but to reform and charge again, and at last went down 
in the wreck of that grand army whose deeds will thrill 
the hearts of generations to come until time shall be no 
more. 



Our time will not suffice to rehearse the last sad scenes 
and the last farewells at Appomattox. Let us ring down 
the curtain here and turn to other thoughts. 

No one, however gifted, can do justice to the memory 
of Robert E. Lee and the men who followed him from 
1 86 1 to 1865, when the air vibrated with the trumpet's 
shrill call and the incessant roll of drums, when the earth 
shook with the rythmic tread of armed men and con- 
flicts fierce and bloody desolated the homes and fields of 
old Virginia. 

To the Confederate Veteran memory for the moment 
lifts the veil, the hardship of the bivouac, the forced 
marches, the weary days of continuous conflict, the strain 
on heart and nerve, and the daily loss of comrades en- 
deared by mutual dangers, pass in review, stirs the heart 
and makes the stagnant blood course through the veins as 
of yore. 

To the young among you these memories are handed 
down as a legacy with no desire to keep alive animosity 
for our former foes, oh no! but to keep green the memory 
of a time when the tide of Virginia's manhood reached 
its flood, when Virginia women soothed the last hours of 
the wounded and the dying, in the absence of the men 
ruled well their homes, bid the men God speed and sent 
them forth to battle with smiles and cheery words that 
scarcely veiled their aching hearts. 

Then let such memories be handed down and kept alive 
that future generations may know how Virginia men 
could dare and die, and Virginia women could suffer for 
a cause that was lost. Not lost will it be if their descend- 
ants but emulate the sturdy manhood of the men and 
the virtues of her peerless women. 

What of Lee ? you ask me— I cannot do him justice. 
To me among all of the men I have ever met he was in 
presence, form and bearing an ideal soldier with looks 



born to command. In all my intercourse with men no 
one has ever so impressed me, and this is the testimony 
of every man who ever knew or saw him. To the men 
of the Confederate army he was the embodiment of all 
that was heroic and grand in human nature. To the 
old soldiers who followed him through those four years 
of hardship and common danger their ranks decreasing 
but with a faith and love unfaltering. 

The soubriquet of " Marse Robert" was touching but 
in effect magical upon them, were they puzzled by some 
unexpected move, wearied and out of temper by an all 
night march, depressed by defeat and a retrograde move- 
ment, they would say it is all right boys, "Marse Robert" 
knows. It was this faith in their leader and in them- 
selves under his guidance, that makes the deeds of the 
army of Northern Virginia the wonder and admiration 
of the civilized world. 

As the history of our civil war unfolds itself, the char- 
acter of General Lee is revealed in all its nobleness, he 
stands out among the men of this and past generations 
as does Mount Blanc among the Alpine peaks, towering 
grandly above them all and with a life and character as 
pure and spotless as the eternal snow that crowns its 
summit. 

What of the Confederate soldier do you ask ? The 
world has marked him as a hero. Rome had her Ceasar, 
who, with his invincible legions, bore down all Europe 
before them, but their motive was conquest and their 
reward the despoiling of the nations, which were over 
run by their disciplined cohorts. Napoleon by the power 
of a military genious never excelled, backed by a mighty 
ambition, so swayed the hearts and minds of the people 
of France that the infantry of the Old and Imperial 
Guard of his army became well nigh invincible under the 



magic of the cry of Vive L Empereur. In strong con- 
trast we had a soldiery fresh from the ordinary avoca- 
tions of life, untried, undisciplined, badly equipped, no 
love of conquest or plunder, nor glamour of human am- 
bition or glory were theirs. But the inborn love of the 
freeman for liberty of thought and action, love of country 
and fireside, made individual heroes of those ranks in 
gray who fought with or without organization often 
wresting victory from seeming defeat. And while on 
such occasions as this we pay our meed of praise to 
soldiers whose deeds of arms have never been surpassed 
let us not forget that it is due to the heroism of the men 
who wore the blue that the Confederate soldier has been 
made immortal. 

Let us recall some feats of arms by those ragged and 
hungry men such as the rush of Longstreet's Corps at the 
" Wilderness" when first checking the line of Hancock 
victory almost in their grasp they were forced back with 
a fury irresistible, or again at the " Wilderness" they 
fought in that dark and almost impenetrable jungle Grant's 
splendidly equipped army disputing every foot of 
ground and strewing it with their own and the dead of 
the enemy. 

Or again at Spottsylvania in that tempest of fire which 
swept the " Bloody Angle" and where the very trees 
swayed and fell before the shot and shell. With un- 
daunted mien these same men, mark you, moved 
between the constantly re-enforced army of Grant and 
the Capital of the Confedracy until that last fearful 
struggle at Cold Harbor where the flower of the Army 
of the Potomac dashed itself in vain upon our lines a 
useless sacrifice until they refused to obey orders to ad- 
vance to the attack and so ended a useless slaughter. 
Thus in a few short weeks Lee's army of fifty three 
thousand men had successfully met and foiled Grant and 



his arm}- of one hundred and twenty thousand, driving 
them to a change of base across the James. Grant's in- 
domitable pluck and tenacity fairly met by Lee's masterly 
strategy. What a story of heroism in both armies is 
here depicted, no other race but the Anglo-Saxon would 
have stood such butchery. 

The charge of Pickett's division at Gettysburg where 
the carnage was fearful, was only equaled in failure and 
loss by Grant's army in charging our lines at the second 
Cold Harbor. In either case we only knew somebody 
had blundered. 

Whether we consider the Confederate soldier as a unit 
or en masse the contemplation of their unfailing courage, 
their willingness to merge personal thought, action, 
every hope in life, their self-abnegation and high sense 
of duty cannot fail to impress the student of history 
with their terrible earnestness. As sometimes watching 
with ceaseless vigil over sleeping comrades, as skirmish- 
ers unmasking the force and movements of the enemy 
as in line of battle with impeteous onset they swept 
over every obstacle, or broke in shattered fragments, as 
at Gettysburg before obstacles too great for mortal 
courage, they stand alone for grandeur and achieve- 
ment in that high sense of personal responsibility, in 
military sagacity, and in unquestioning obedience before 
an admiring world. 



A few lines written by A. C. Gordon fitly closes this 
address. 



Where are they who marched away 
Followed by our hopes and fears ; 

Nobler never went than they 
To a bloodier, madder fray, 

In the lapse of all the years. 



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With them ever shall abide 

All our love and all our prayers. 

What of them"? The battle's tide 

Hath not scathed them. Lo, they ride 

Still with Stuart down the years. 

Where are they who went away 

Sped with smiles that changed to tears?' 
Lee yet leads the line of gray, 

Stonewall still rides down this way : 
They are Fame's through all the years ! 



Note — Corse's Brigade had been thrown forward to occupy and hold 
Chesters and Manassas Gap for the passage of Lee's Army and to protect 
our trains and pontoons just being laid near Front Royal. 

The Seventeenth was detailed for Manassas Gap which was held for 
ten hours without support. 

While Gen. Grant moved on Richmond, Gen. Butler, with a large 
force made his demonstration against Richmond from the south side of 
the James. Our command was rushed up from North Carolina. 
Kautz's Cavalry in the mean while made a raid on the Weldon R. R., 
destroying the track for miles and all communication with the South in 
that direction. On our arival in Petersburg we were ordered by Gen, 
Wise to Farmville and then to the bridges on the Richmond and Dan- 
ville R. R. threatened by Kautz's Raiders. We reached there before 
Kautz and after a four hours of hard fighting saved the bridges, thus 
keeping the only communication left between Richmond and the South. 

The importance of these two engagements will be obvious to all mili- 
tary men. 



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